October 17th to 23rd, 2010
I used to joke that when it rains, we could run outside with an umbrella. Last Sunday morning, October 17th, while my friends were doing the Long Beach Marathon or half, I was on my way to a store and I actually saw a woman bedecked in her sweats and Ipod, running in the rain with an umbrella! Too bad I was driving or I would have taken her picture. She coordinated her short strides and arm swings very well to be able to stay under the umbrella. Well during Tuesday afternoon’s rain, although I was tempted to follow that woman’s example, I opted for the treadmill instead. It was a choice bundling up and running outdoors in the rain, or doing it shirtless on the treadmill. Running in the light rain would have been more fun but running with minimal accoutrements indoors was good too.
After having a crummy and sluggish run last Thursday, I felt the need to wipe the bad taste from my mouth and go out for a feel good run on Saturday morning, light rain or not. How to do it? Just keep it simple and slow was the plan. Out the door I went without a GPS watch so I didn’t have to worry about pace or distance. Using my trusty old Timex, I aimed for 45 minutes to an hour of steady state running. Plugged in my ears was my radio tuned to the weekly top 40. Light rain? No problem. Put on a light nylon jacket , leave the eyeglasses at home, and wander about aimlessly half-blind. Half an hour into the run, the radio battery died and I was left listening to the heavy flopping of my stride. Go down one street, then another. Running short of distance on the way back? Just go down another street while calculating how far to go before turning back home to make it an hour. How far did I run and what pace did I go? Heck if I know and I didn’t care. The bad taste was gone and I had my feel good run. I had to take a cold shower afterwards, not for therapeutic purposes but because the water heater was on the fritz again. I got through it, felt refreshed and was ready to face work later that day.
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2 comments:
You are so inspiring, Noel. I've been running on the treadmill lately, not so much because of the rain (although that is a factor) but because I'm using the other machines at the gym a lot lately, like the stairmaster and the free weights. Sadly, I've been running less, but using weights more. I need to build those 6 pack abs, haha!
Sophie, it's more inspiring that you have finished 4 marathons in the past year. And running less a week after a marathon to do something else is just cross training for recovery, not to mention the goal of being on a Shape Magazine cover ;)
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